Magellan Development is responsible for developing LakeShore East in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Having purchased a unit at their building, The Regatta, and spoken with others who have closed in their first building there, The Lancaster, we can safely say that these are scam artists of the highest order. The sales agents will mislead you, property reports will change, and you will live in a building that is unsecured and costly to make safe and livable.
Regarding the individual unit - we were lucky.By having our attorney review everything and be on our letterhead, we got the punchlist done 4 months after closing. Others in our building had 60 punchlist items still incomplete at almost 1 year. The attorneys forced us to close on the unit despite the refrigerator not being completely installed (we had to have our attorney get involved to block closing until the fridge was actually in the unit - Magellan claimed the unit was 'habitable' and could be moved in, so they wanted our money). Still, eventually all got done. Except when I finally began internet service and learned that there's at least 1 jack not working. I doubt I'll get response.
However, it is the building deficits at large that are the worst. DO NOT buy preconstruction - while your unit may be fine, they will outright mislead you into thinking they are not selling to flippers or rental landlords. That's what they told us, and over half the building is being rented - not what one wants in a condo, and it makes getting building loans for improvements impossible.
They also outright lied about the fitness center.'State of the art' was what was told to us, and it was to be on the first floor in a large area with floor to ceiling windows.instead, Magellan claimed the space as their own, made it a sales center, and jammed the fitness center into a small almost windowless room that gets crowded with 4 people in it. I have the property report showing they stole our fitness space, and of course, we'll sue. However, Magellan has money for lawyers, and we are a new condo association. Further, they have people clogging up our street with cars parking in tow zones in the streets in front of the building.
Building security is a joke. Magellan sold people parking in areas that are in a public easement throughway - essentially, they sold them street parking but implied it was 'in the building'. Trying to get our parking and building secured with this has been a nightmare and will be quite costly.
They lied when they said that Magellan will make the rooftops of the buildings aesthetically pleasing for other high rises to look at - we're staring at airconditioning and mechanicals on their new building next to us.
As a simple yet obvious example, Magellan does nothing to care for the sidewalks of their empty lots or construction zones - if it doesn't make money, they couldn't care less.
If you buy Magellan, get it POST CONSTRUCTION so you know they can't screw you. Also, if you want preconstruction, which is unclear why anyone would do that in the current market (it's unnecessary - wait until you can see what you have since price sure ain't going up anytime soon), make the contract have an escape clause if you do not like how either the unit or public areas came out, and avoid putting too much down on upgrades, which they can keep. Remember, if you don't like what they did, you won't be able to sell it any time soon.
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